Support for Dept. of Ed. barely tops one-third in Tennessee poll

Half of Tennesseeans support abolition of the United States Department of Education, according to the most recent poll from the Beacon Center in Nashville. Just 37% of survey respondents support keeping the Carter-era department, which costs taxpayers about a quarter of a trillion dollars per year. The remaining 13% remained undecided. The Beacon Center also found 61% support for amending the Volunteer State's constitution to ban property taxes. And in an ominous turn for America's country home, rock, with 30% support, edged out country, with 26%, as the state's favorite musical genre.

Utah law opens books on municipal broadband schemes

A newly enacted law requires Utah municipal broadband projects to make detailed fiscal disclosures and more closely follow project outcomes. The law, sponsored by Sen. Lincoln Fillmore, R.-Salt Lake and Rep. Ryan Wilcox R.-Weber, is designed to ensure local governments make realistic cost and risk assessments. "Under this new law, municipal broadband projects must now disclose detailed financial projections, including revenue expectations and the anticipated timeline for repaying installation costs," writes Libertas Institute's Caden Rosenbaum. "Once complete, cities must also produce a report to the public about their municipal broadband projects to give taxpayers an accurate view of how these projects are going. By requiring this level of transparency, SB 165 ensures that residents can see the complete picture before their city governments commit to them — and hold them accountable if they don’t live up to par."

Florida wants property tax relief

Nearly two-thirds of Floridians support eliminating property taxes for primary residences via an expanded homestead exemption in a new poll from Tallahassee's James Madison Institute. Given the choice, more Floridians would prefer to cut property taxes than the state sales tax. And 55% would like to get rid of the state's 7% tax on phone, cable and streaming.

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